Safe Routes for Non Drivers of all ages is a part of MVRPC’s Complete Streets vision, our active transportation programming, and a part of national transportation funding priorities. Many Safe Routes efforts are focused on children getting to and from school, but we are also invested in finding or creating safe routes for the seniors in our community and those individuals who cannot afford a car.

Safe Routes programs provide health benefits from walking and bicycling, community building as a result of School and City planning efforts, reduced traffic congestion, and improved Air Quality, as car trips are replaced with walking, bicycling, or transit trips. In order to approach safety planning in a comprehensive way, we support the Five E’s:

Engineering

Education

Encouragement

Enforcement

Evaluation

Our Transportation Alternatives and Surface Transportation Program funding is targeted for engineering projects; while our agency programming includes trainings and resources to help local communities with the other approaches (education, encouragement, enforcement and evalution)

This professional training was geared to Community Planners, Safe Routes to School advocates, School and Health professionals, Parks professionals, and Landscape Architects. The youth involvement training (Photo Voice and U-Map) was directly applicable for communities engaged in park or school planning and development.

Safe Routes Forum, June 2013

An informative forum was held at Kettering Fairmont High School, where local communities shared their own safe routes plans and activities, and MVRPC was able to share our Transportation Alternatives funding plans.